Clik here to view.
Article 27
As this week’s parasha begins, Jacob, having just swindled his brother out of his birthright and his blessing, is on the lam, en route to cool his heels in Haran for a while. Before he can get there,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 26
There are biblical stories that resonate with clarity and urgency, that guide and inspire us, that lay in the sod of our souls the foundations of morality and lovingkindness. This week’s parasha is not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 25
Hey, kids! Excited about the new Nintendo 3DS? Can’t wait to play Portal 2? Forget such trifles: Your world is about to be rocked, courtesy the Council of Samarian Settlers, which recently released a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 24
Like meeting an old flame years later and finding out he or she did not age gracefully, revisiting the video games of our childhood can be a jarring experience. Those of us accustomed to lifelike,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 23
Facebook games tend to end up in the growing pile of cultural detritus, along with reality TV and tweeting congressmen. Usually, they involve coercing one’s friends to join in silly, virtual...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 22
Last spring, I gave a tough assignment to the students in my NYU class on literary and cultural representations of the Holocaust. “By Wednesday,” I told them, “I want you to kill Hitler.” Their task...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 21
As a professor of video games at a major university, I spend a lot of time, well, playing video games. So when Marc Tracy posted a trailer for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, I was thrilled. The game...
View ArticleClik here to view.
God and Video Games
Part of my week each week is spent at Tablet Magazine, where, among other things, I write this column of Torah commentary. Another part is spent at New York University, where I teach and research video...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Video Games, Especially ‘Wolfenstein,’ Are All About Revenge
The Arbiter is a weekly column dedicated to revisiting canonical works of art, high and low alike, to reevaluate their merit. All media are considered; none are pitied. As an homage to the greatest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Liel Leibovitz on Wolfenstein 3D
Video games, observes senior writer Liel Leibovitz in his “Arbiter” column today in Tablet Magazine, are the only appropriate medium for revenge, because only in them is the cause for vengeance...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Demise of Herbert Moon
Below is the link to a deleted scene from the (unknown to me until now) video game Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. In the scene, a Western storekeep blames the Jews not only for killing Abraham...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Adolf Critler’ and the Question of Video Games and Free Speech
Poor old Adolf Critler. All he wanted to do was bum around Tyria for a while, hang out with his friends, and seek and destroy the armies of Zhaitan, the undead dragon. Instead, he was ejected from the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
You’ve Read the Book of Leviticus. Now Play the Video Game.
As the game begins, cartoon animals go flying in the air, and players must slash their throats by swiping a finger across the screen. Like many similar video games designed for the iPhone and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To Restart Mideast Peace Talks, John Kerry Should Look to Video Games
Forget Big Data. Think not of crowdsourcing. Disruption, our sincerest apologies. But of all the insipid terms that the tech industry, an industrious mint of trendy terms, has ever coined, gamification...
View ArticleClik here to view.
After Nintendo Passed On Holocaust Video Game, Developer Seeks Crowd-Sourced...
The Holocaust-themed videogame “Imagination is the Only Escape,” a work by game developer Luc Bernard that was rejected by Nintendo several years ago, is meant to teach its users a lesson about life as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Munich Designer Creates Anne Frank Video Game About Life in Hiding
A Munich game designer has created an interactive video game that reenacts a day of hiding in the life of Anne Frank, with the hopes of memorializing the Holocaust for the millennial generation, JTA...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Video Game Tests Out Ties Between Bureaucracy, Obedience, and Evil
This week is the year’s biggest for video games. With two new gaming consoles—the Xbox One and the PlayStation Four—released for the first time in nearly a decade, and with a slew of new titles...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair on the Perils of the Digital Age
If you’re a parent living in the 21st century, chances are you have occasionally used digital technology for back-up when your patience is wearing thin, either to escape into your own work or social...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New South Park Game Lets You Play the Jew
Please don’t send me any emails today. Don’t call. Don’t expect attention, affection, or even basic human acknowledgment. As soon as I can, I’m running home, turning on my PlayStation, and jumping...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are Chicago Eighth Graders Using A Video Game to Bully Jewish Classmates?
Are eighth graders in Chicago using a video game to bully a Jewish classmate? That’s what one parent is alleging. Chicago Public School officials are investigating whether eighth grade students at...
View Article